The legendary guitarist who made Eric Clapton self-conscious: “A great deal of being in awe”
If, like Eric Clapton, you’re considered by your audience to be one of the greatest guitar players of all time, and you’re acutely aware of how good you are, you’re arguably going to want to be given the space to shine.
Clapton is perhaps one of the finest examples of a guitarist who has done it all, and despite having begun his career as a man of the blues, his work would gradually diversify over the years as he became more and more established as a player in his own right rather than just as a sideman in other projects. Playing with others allowed Clapton to excel, but playing as the sole guitarist was on another level.
While it’s not unusual for blues guitarists to trade solos on stage and riff off each other, that does prompt an air of competitiveness, and one where you’re constantly fighting to be the star of the show. If you’re playing by yourself, audiences aren’t going to have their attention diverted elsewhere by someone else’s brilliance, unless they’re focusing more intently on the work of another member of the ensemble.
Of course, Clapton could hold his own in this regard, but it would have been considerably easier for him if he hadn’t had someone there competing with him, where he was given ample space to be the centre of attention.
By the late 1980s, he was working as a solo artist, no longer reliant on the dynamic of a band with whom he had to establish compromises, and this gave him the chance to establish complete creative control over what he could do on stage in terms of showing off his impeccable talents.
However, that doesn’t mean that he wasn’t occasionally flanked by other great guitarists in this period, and in a 1989 interview with Guitar World, he was asked about how playing alongside the likes of Tim Renwick and Mark Knopfler, either side of a period of being a solo guitarist, compared to one another.
“In many ways, you sacrifice a lot when you bring another great guitar player in,” Clapton responded, seemingly suggesting that playing alone was his preference. “It’s kind of a novelty at first; it’s something you have to get over.”
However, he went on to acknowledge how being on stage with other formidable players was something of a distraction for him, particularly those whom he already had a great deal of respect for. “With Mark, I went through a great deal of being in awe,” he remarked. “The first week or two of playing together, I was listening to him too much, being too self-conscious about the situation. But when you get over that, you get used to him being there. I don’t ignore him, but I just go ahead as if there was no other guitar player.”
Clapton may have been no stranger to the different dynamics that come with performing in groups, but it’s clear that his preference was knowing that he was the best guitarist on stage at any given time, and when Mark Knopfler is around, there’s no guarantee that that position is going to be yours.
Never Miss A Tale
The Far Out Classic Rock Newsletter
All the latest Classic Rock content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.